B P Maurya had won this seat once for the Congress, in 1971; the closest he came after that was in 1989, when he lost to the JD's K C Tyagi. In 1991 and 1996 Tyagi was second to the BJP's Ramesh Chand Tomar who won the last time defeating Tyagi by 94,000 votes. Anwar Ahmed of the BSP was in third place, winning 126,194 votes.